Breakfast & Dinner @ The Ship Restaurant (Nex Mall)

Today's breakfast is a little different. Had the Sarawak pineapple ($5) from Sheng Shiong supermart and the Nonya ba-chang (meat dumpling). The pineapple is sweet and juicy and is hard to come by these days. The cheaper pineapple is about $1.50 but is smaller and not so juicy.
The ba-chang ($1.80) is satisfactory but nowhere compared to the ones from  Joo Chiat.

Steak dinner @ The Ship

We had dinner at The Ship Restaurant in Nex Mall. We ordered the roast prime rib of beef ($39.90) and US ribeye steak set ($40.90). The meat were 240 gram per piece but overall they weren't as good as we expected. The bread rolls were dried and we didn't eat them at all. The beef lacked flavour and weren't worth paying for. In fact, Hot Tomato's beef are much tastier and cheaper. If not for the long dinner queue at Hot Tomato, we would have dined there instead of The Ship. Total bill came to $95.10 for the 2 orders. To conclude, The Ship was a big disappointment!

Once in a while I would crave for a Malay dish called lontong. The stall that sells spicy and yummy lontong is at the Kovan hawker center. There are 2 Malay stalls are next to each other but the best lontong is the stall on your left. $3.50 is all you have to pay like the one above which I had this morning.
In the afternoon, I went to Nex Mall at Serangoon bus Interchange and had my lunch over there. It was 3 pm and so there was a 20% discount on all main courses (from 3 pm till 5 pm on weekdays only). I had the steak with 2 huge prawns and spaghetti plus a plate of Caesar's salad. The damage was $24!

It was our first time visiting Mad Jack. The above were from the lunch menu. The place was packed with students because the Student meals were quite cheap (main course + a drink for $6.90++) whereas ours were at $11.90++ each and without the drinks. Nevertheless, it was a good lunch.

There was a dozen of us at Plaza Singapura Kopitiam yesterday having lunch. We were from RI and this is the usual monthly gathering. This time it's a bit special because we had with us our ex-school teacher KBT (the gentleman on your left) who flew from Toronto for a vacation in Singapore.

Was at Nex Mall in the evening and decided to have my dinner at Hot Tomato. Ordered the pork chop with sausages and pasta ($12.90 ++). It was a good meal but still not satisfied and so proceeded to KFC a few doors away and had the cheesy chicken meal set ($8.20). This KFC meal was really yummy and worth every cent I've paid for.

Brunch@ Block 473, Sengkang & dinner was chirashi don

We have been to this coffee shop before. The place has free wi-fi and is still as quiet as in 2016 when it first opened. The wanton mee is as good as before but it has increased by 30c a plate to $3.30c.
The breakfast toast set is now $2.50. The initial offer of $1.80 per set is gone.

Charashi don from Thomson Plaza

This was the first time we obento (tar pow) the chirashi don and ate it at home (above). It was $12.80, the same price as when we ate at the Sushiro Restaurant at Thomson Plaza. However, this time the sashimi were smaller pieces as compared to the last time we ate at the restaurant. Besides, the rice was hard and unlike Japanese rice.This would be the last time we would tar pow the chirashi don.

This was the chirashi don we had in the restaurant a few months ago

President Halimah Yacob & Qatari Amir

After yesterday's disappointment with the 453, Ang Mo Kio Ave 3 fried Hokkien mee, we went to Yi Ji at 805, Hougang Central and try their Hokkien mee. We had been there before and it was delicious but sad to say this time the mee was not as good. It has also raised a small plate (above) from $4 to $5. The cuttle fish and prawn were dried and tasteless. If not for the nice flavoured stock, the dish would have been a disaster.

I had the ice-kachang from the nearby Kopitiam. After a 10% discount (had to use a Kopitiam pre-paid card), it cost $2.25c. This dessert served here is not as good as it should be. These days, the hawker food are of lower standards as compared to the 1950s,60s and 70s. The modern hawkers only care about making money and not very bothered with the quality of the food they sell. I have come across Bangladeshis selling Chinese food and China men making roti prata. Therefore, one should not expect the hawker fare to be as good as say from Malaysia.

Tori soboro don

Tori soboro don is Japanese minced chicken meat with rice. My wife made it and added egg, red ginger and some seaweed. It is quite a sweet dish and my first time eating it. It is palatable and won't mind having it again.

Disappointing meals from Ang Mo Kio

Was at Blk 453 AMK Ave 5 hawker center and had the above fried Hokkien mee. It tasted different from the one we always eat whenever we were there. The cook is now a younger man and he is the son of the old cook (Mr Koh) whom we were told was too tired of frying the mee. No wonder, today's mee wasn't yummy. We will never again order the mee from this stall as long as the old man cook is not the one who fries the mee.

We tried the char kway teow next door. It was so so and was quite a disappointing evening for us. Won't recommend my readers to eat from these 2 stalls.